The Northrop-EADS team's prospects for the tanker contract continue to improve. The companies learned last week that an influential study of the Air Force's options for modernizing its tanker fleet recommended that Northrop and EADS be allowed to compete for the work against Boeing.

Still, the tanker contract remains an uncertainty.

The engineering center -- and its 150 high-paying, highly sought jobs -- come without contingencies. Airbus wants the center, scheduled to open in January 2007, initially to handle interior design work on its new A350 aircraft.

It could be expanded to include tanker design.

Airbus executives said they have been flooded with resumes from aerospace engineers interested in coming to work in Mobile.